Saturday, January 2, 2016

STAR WARS.....NOVA this week (January 2, 2016)

STAR
WARS (part two)NOVA this week (January
2, 2016)

A
couple weeks ago, I posed the question: why is Star Wars such a phenomenon?

You
know what? I don’t know?

I like
Star Wars. I like it a lot. But I wouldn’t say I love it, even though I am responsible
for one of the greatest Star Wars fans of all time, my youngest brother, and
three pretty big fans in my three children. But I don’t really know why it is
such a phenomenon.

First,
an assertion – more of an opinion really: I don’t have statistical data to
support this, but in my lifetime, I’ve never seen anything else like the Star
Wars craze.

So
what is it? Maybe you’ve never thought about it. Maybe I shouldn’t. But here’s
the problem – it’s what I do. Professionally, I’m an analyst – a puzzle solver.
I collect data, evaluate/validate the data, analyze it, and formulate an
assessment, usually answering how, why, or what next. It’s a little like being
given pieces of a jigsaw puzzle without seeing the finished picture, with more
than 50% of the pieces missing, and extra pieces thrown in, and then trying to
understand the big picture.

That’s
what I’m trying to do with Star Wars. My first assessment is that it isn’t any
single thing. I think Lucas and the other responsible parties either brilliantly
or ignorantly stumbled upon the perfect storm of escapism.

Most of the major roles are not major stars (or
weren’t before Star Wars). Right? I think we like that.

Good guys in white, bad guys in black. (I am
aware of the exceptions, but I’m thinking of the main champions of each cause).
Ya know, cinema has moved well beyond the corny days of the white hat, perfect straight
toothed cowboy western, but I think somehow, we secretly, subconsciously yearn
for the unambiguous good and evil.

We all love an underdog. A few insignificant
little people vs the giant unassailable Empire. David vs Goliath, Rocky vs
Apollo, colonists vs the British Empire, or common man vs the growing behemoth of
government.

Shiny things

Furry things

Fast things

Shooty things

And light sabers, gotta love light sabers

Loyalty, courage, sacrifice

But I
don’t know. I still feel I’m lacking one epiphanous metaphor to explain it all.

2 comments:

I'm not smart enough to understand the phenomenon, especially as pop culture matters always confuse me, but I think it has something to do with primal mythmaking; it's like the Bible but secular. Does that make sense?